| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Application Specific Hosting
What Is Application Specific Hosting?
There is a need for certain documents and files to be
stored on the Internet without the need for a website to
accompany them. Whether it is for personal use or for
commercial use there are valid reasons to store pictures
and videos online for example. Developing and
maintaining a website to hold a picture album is
excessive in the majority of cases. The same can also be
said for a wide range of other files. Even certain web
based applications that you might ordinarily associate
with being attached to a website do not require a full
dedicated web presence and hosting account.
Hosting these types of file and application is not cost
effectively achieved through the establishment of your
own website. Hosting a website that includes pictures of
your latest vacation is certainly excessive especially
because there are services available that do not require
this level of website.
Blog Hosting
Blogs have become one of the most popular methods of
posting information and resources to the Internet. For
those without a website and without the inclination to
set one up a number of blog hosts exist that offer fully
hosted blogs either free of charge or for a fee.
Free Services
Those that are free of charge generally have more
restrictions placed on the account and may require
forced advertisements or a blog bar at the top of the
page. For personal blogs they offer everything that is
needed. They offer a near instant setup, your own domain
name, a simple content management system that enables
the quick posting of entries, and much more.
Design Using Basic Templates
Blog hosting from specialist services provides users
with a template based design facility. You can pick a
template and, in some cases, make minor alterations to
that template. Once you have chosen your template and
completed the short signup process you will immediately
be given your own, hosted blog.
Paid Services
Paid blog hosting offers a lot more in the way of
functionality and personalization. The blog host still
usually provides templates but there are generally more
ways to customize the blog and alter its appearance. It
may be possible to include your own logo or banner and
you will also usually be given access to dynamic blog
features such as web polls and votes.
Choosing A Blog Hosting Service
If you are looking for a blog host for business purposes
then you really should consider the use of a commercial
host and the purchase of your own domain name. Because
you are not forced to include any advertisements or the
bar that is used to develop blog networks you can gain a
much more professional feel and appearance to your blog.
Media File Hosting
While blogs have been the single most popular advance of
the Internet in recent years, media hosting has not been
without its popularity. Sites like Youtube enable you
and other Internet users to post videos for free. These
videos can then be viewed by other visitors or you can
embed them in your site using the appropriate HTML code.
You can also provide a link to anyone that needs to see
the content of your videos.
Video hosting is only a part of media hosting. Similar
services that concentrate on the hosting of images or
pictures also exist and operate in a similar manner.
Again, these can be used simply as a point of reference
to direct people to or they can be used to host your
images in order that you can add them to your website
without using your own diskspace.
Using MySpace
MySpace has also grown in popularity. This
community-networking site enables you to host pictures,
videos, and even music on a free page. The uses and
possibilities are far stretched. Some bands have been
discovered by using MySpace as a legitimate method to
promote their music while businesses and websites use
MySpace in order to effectively market their products,
their service, or their main website.
Wiki Hosting From Wiki Farms
A wiki is a valuable portal of the Internet community.
Generally speaking, a wiki is completely open to enable
anyone to add, edit, or delete articles. They can be
used as an excellent resource and provide website owners
with another invaluable resource of information to their
visitors. Not to mention, of course, that they provide
yet another source of Internet real estate.
The Wiki Farm
The changing size and shape of a wiki makes it difficult
to administer yourself, without a server. However, a
wiki farm is a host that offers the opportunity to host
your wiki on their servers. They provide a stable
environment for what could be one of the more valuable
assets to your online presence. Wiki farms do not
generally cater to exceptionally large wikis and in
these cases it may be necessary to have your own server
or make specific arrangements with a host provider.
Other File Hosts
Offering software and other applications to your users
can cost a great deal in bandwidth. This is particularly
true of shareware or freeware applications that are
offered at no cost. Many users will want to take
advantage of the free software and every time it is
downloaded it adds to your total bandwidth usage. If the
application is even relatively large and you have a
reasonable amount of traffic on a regular basis it can
make using your shared hosting account to host this
software unreasonable and very expensive.
While some free software and file hosting services do
exist, it is unlikely that any free service will
accommodate the mass of bandwidth that is often
associated with free software downloads. In these cases
you will more than likely need a paid service that
charges according to your requirements.
Conclusion
It is possible to host and server a wide range of
different files and even web pages on the Internet
without having to have your own website or even a
“normal” hosting account. Blog hosting, media hosting,
and even software hosting is generally available in free
and paid versions. While free versions offer one major
advantage they are invariably unable to offer the same
level of functionality, customization, and limits that
the paid versions allow.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
